“Nathan Makonel, you haven’t said anything since this meeting started. But we would like to hear your input now, brother. Are you that torn with happiness?” Kane questioned the tall, finely sculpted man sitting right across him, on the long rectangular oakwood table, whose head was bowed low as if in deep thought.
Nathan didn’t answer. Not yet.
Kane looked at the other ancients gathered around the table and sighed. They would have to wait till Nathan was ready to talk. His friend has always been like that. Not easily moved or pressured. Hard as rock. Just like a first born prince was.
Kane wondered now if he would take up the position seeing that the reason why the latter had dropped it was because of the darkness that had begun to invade his senses. Nathan hadn’t wanted to be a tool to prey on his people. And so he had handed the position to his younger brother who had found his lifemate, and had gone into hiding. It had taken them the whole of five hours to find him, despite the powers they had, despite the measures they took.
When Kane and the others had arrived in the mountains that was their home at first, he and his brother, Dobah, had to swear allegiance to the throne first, for they had sworn to Nathan’s father as young warriors before being dispatched to different corners of the world. And so, they had to swear an allegiance now, not because the new prince, Jairo, didn’t trust them, but because it was necessary. And when they had sworn, then they had told the tale of the redheads back in the pack.
Jairo had worked with a frenzy, all of them had, for anything could change in the split second. Nathan could decide to turn into the darkness in a split second, and it just didn’t make sense that it would happen right at this moment. They had found Nathan huddled in a cave right at the border of the mountain, looking like a wild animal. His beards had grown longer than any ancient Kane has ever seen. It passed his waist, and the man hadn’t even tied it at least. It had just dropped and shagged like that, looking like a mini forest. He had half expected to find a rabbit there.
Nathan hadn’t asked them why they were there, why his younger brother, and the two twins were there. He didn’t say a thing when they had told him that Sheila was alive. Except for the shaking, the clenching and unclenching of his fists, when Sheila was mentioned, there had been no other reaction.
He didn’t speak too when they had told him of his three daughters, but he finally got out of the cave then, and Kane had smiled when he had heard his friend breathe a deep long gash of air. It sounded like finally.
Yet, Nathan didn’t speak. Rather he had walked the long distance, majestic as if he had all the time in the world, to the residence reserved only for the prince of the people. They had followed him, a step at a time. And when he had gotten to the residence, he hadn’t even bothered to explain to the women who shouted at seeing his ragged appearance.
No. He had walked in that straight line motion to the bathroom, and had spent another good one hour there, and when he had come out, Kane laughed. Gone were the beards, and the dull eyes. His friend’s gray eyes with rings of blue were alight with life, but the latter still didn’t speak.
They have recounted the tales of the pack, just as they had heard it, and yet he still wouldn’t talk. Kane was getting impatient. “Old friend, we will have to return to the pack without you, if you don’t say a word. Your daughter, Lucille, would be going through her first shift. She has the wolf gene in her. I don’t know about Freya. She is….”
“I don’t understand how the gods could have mated my innocent daughter to you of all people, Kane.”
There was a pause where Nathan lifted his head and gazed steadily at a Kane whose mouth remained caught, between speaking and shutting up. His friend had finally spoken. And although his voice was hoarse, the voice of someone who had spoken for more than ten years, it had reverberated across the room. Kane was stupefied.
Dobah chuckled first, breaking the stunned silence, and then the others followed. The prince and the elders were present too, including their women.
Kane scoffed, but there was the tug in his mouth, and the amusement that shone in his eyes.
“When you met her mother, you were centuries old yourself. Don’t be the black kettle calling the pot black.”
Nathan snorted, reclining deeper into the chair.
“So, you have a mouth to talk now. I thought you would have remained mute till eternity.”
Nathan waved him off. “I couldn’t talk because happiness was weighing strong on my tongue. You know, I had kept on holding on, reminding myself that she hadn’t been a fragment of my dreams. That she had been real. That she had actually stayed with me. And when you came bearing the good tidings, I had almost gone insane with happiness.”
“Well, good things come to those who wait…” Dobah enthused, holding back a laugh when Nathan’s gaze landed on Aiden and Julius.
“Weren’t they the boys in nappies then? Stubborn lots, and now one is mated to my daughter. I really don’t understand the mind of the gods.” Nathan whined dramatically, folding his arms across his chest, his gaze never leaving the twins who suddenly didn’t know what to do with their hands.
As a matter of fact, they felt honored to be noticed by the real Prince, by the embodiment of sheer power. They had heard of his short taste of victories, and the sharp decline in his famous-ness.
Kane shook his head. His friend was back to full energy. What a fast swing! He thought, folding his arms across his chest, unable to keep the soft smile on his lips, when his friend shone the entirety of his white teeth to the table, as if coming to a certain realization.
“So, Kane, I’m your father in law? What will you call me now? Father?” Nathan laughed as he spoke, the others joined too, and Kane cussed at the whole lot of them.
“Shut your mouth, and let’s get moving. We have a few minutes to return to the pack.” Kane said, interrupting whatever diss that Nathan wanted to throw at him again. He had almost forgotten how talkative this friend of his was.
Nathan’s humor waned, as he stood up from the seat, and then looked at his brother, Jairo. “You have done a good job with the community, brother. Continue with it. I have to see my family.”
Jairo bowed his head.
“Will you bring them here to see us all?”
Nathan smiled lazily. “Of course.”
Below his breath, Kane muttered ‘help us gods.’
He just remembered how troublesome Nathan was, especially when he showed that lazy smile of his.